UK Coal

UK Coal is is Britain's biggest producer of coal and operates a total of 11 mines. On its website UK Coal states that it also "develops and regenerates brownfield sites, manages business parks on former mine sites and manages a substantial agricultural portfolio of land and buildings."

UK Coal -- which was originally known as RJB Mining -- bought the coal assets of British Coal when the public company was privatised in December 1994.

In January 2011, UK Coal announced its total production for 2010 went up to 7.2m tonnes from 7m a year earlier, despite the closure of Welbeck deep mine in May 2010, which left UK Coal with three operating deep mines. UK Coal's deep mines produced 5.8m tonnes in 2010, while 1.5m tonnes was produced from its surface mines. The group has spent £150m over the past two-and-a-half years to move to new seams at Thoresby and Kellingley.

UK Coal announced in April 2011 that they had slumped for a third full-year in a row. UK Coal lost up to 12 percent in share value, the most since July 19, 2010. The net loss for the year ended Dec. 25, 2010 came to 125.1 million pounds, compared with a year-earlier loss of 127.5 million pounds. It was also reported that if UK Coal does not turn a profit in years to come that the company would be forced into bankruptcy, essentially ending all coal mining in the UK.

Coal Mining Operations
As of January 2010, UK Coal has the following three deep mining and six surface mining active coal operations. UK Coal has reserves and resources of over 100 million tonnes at the deep mines and approximately 50 million tonnes at its surface mines.

March 22, 2010: Protesters Set up Camp to Protest Mine in UK
On March 22, 2010, anti-coal activists began protesting UK Coal's proposed coal mine near the communities of New Works and Little Wenlock. UK Coal promised to take legal action against the protesters if they did not remove themselves from the site. The protest began in response to the coal company's proposed opencast mine to be dug in the area. Dozens of protesters, some camped over night, sought to disrupt the operation with non-violent direct action. One of the protesters, who wouldn't be named, said: “We object because it’s so close to The Wrekin and people’s homes.”

Another protester, who also did not want to be named, said: “They already started to cut down trees which they said were around 20 years old, but they’re not, they’re about 150 years old.”

As of April 28, 2010 the site of the proposed mine was still being occupied by anti-coal activists. At that time UK Coal was seeking legal authority to arrest the protesters. The government run company noted that operations were still set to begin by June 2010.

March 26, 2010: Activists Protest Opencast Mine in UK
On Mary 26, 2010, 25 anti-coal activists occupied the site of the Blair House Opencast coal mining operation. The UK Coal company was operator of the mine. As reported by UK Indymedia about the event:


 * UK Coal have been given permission by Fife Council to mine 720,000 tonnes of coal from the site, a decision that disregarded the wishes of local residents. Nearly 150 people objected to the planning application for this site and there were no letters of support. The Council, in their defence, wouldn't dare refuse another open cast coal mine application after their refusal of ATH Resources mine at Muir Dean on the insistence of Crossgates residents, was overturned by the government and cost them financially.


 * The site is ecologically diverse and home to a population of Great Crested Newts, a European Protected Specie, the Black Wood Wildlife site, designated as an area that once had ancient woodland and is now home to birch forests and oak trees, orchids, breeding birds and wintering birds, bats, red squirrels and Brown hares, listed on the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. The Cowstrandburn river will be diverted and undoubtedly polluted, along with other watercourses in the area.


 * Some 2.11 million tonnes of CO2 will be released into the atmosphere from the combustion of the coal, with more still being released from the mining process. None of this will be captured and stored. New coal mines such as this one undermine the governments plans to reduce Scotland's CO2 emissions and highlight the hypocrisy of government ministers and local councils when it comes to reducing emissions.


 * Fiona Richards, one of the people currently occupying the site said, “This new coal mine is only one of 20 such others to have recently been given planning permission in Scotland. If we are to have any chance of limiting dangerous climate change and protecting communities from carbon-intensive industries, direct action must be taken as councillors, mining companies and the government have shown their unwillingness to solve the problems we face.”

April 2010: Coal Activists End Protest at Opencast Mine in UK
Protesters who occupied an opencast mine operated by UK Coal to highlight an opencast coal development in the town of Fife believe ended their protest after two weeks in April 2010. The activists left the mine site prior to a court order that would have forced them to. In a statement the group wrote:


 * The camp occupied the site for a week-and-a-half to show UK Coal and other mine operators that no new mine or coal infrastructure is safe and out of reach of protesters. The intention of the camp from the beginning was to hold a short-term occupation to bring attention to the issue, make links with local communities and cost UK Coal money. One of the primary aims of the camp was to cost UK Coal money and make it more difficult for the company to cause such destruction in other places.

November 2010: Opencast mining plans dismissed at appeal
In November 2010 a proposed development to the east of the town of Leeds in the UK was thrown out following concerted campaign against the plan. Residents Against Greenbelt Exploitation (RAGE) group in a bid to defeat the plans.

The controversial plan was originally submitted by Banks Developments in 2006 to extract coal and other minerals from land close to the Fairburn Ings nature reserve in Ledston. This application was rejected by Leeds Council in August 2009. The developer then submitted an appeal against the decision, but the appeal was later dismissed.

Underground Mines

 * Daw Mill
 * Kellingley
 * Thoresby
 * Welbeck
 * Harworth

Open Cut Mines

 * Stobswood
 * Sharlston
 * Long Moor
 * Lodge House
 * Cutacre
 * Stony Heap
 * Steadsburn

Contact Details
UK COAL Head Office Harworth Park Blyth Road Harworth Doncaster South Yorkshire DN11 8DB Tel: 01302 751751 Fax: 01302 752420 Email: enquire AT ukcoal.com Website: http://www.ukcoal.com/

UK coal related articles

 * Advanced Power Technology Forum
 * British Coal Utilisation Research Association
 * Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
 * The Coal Authority
 * Department of Trade and Industry (UK)
 * Scottish Coal
 * British Geological Survey
 * European Union Large Combustion Plant Directive
 * United Kingdom and coal
 * Very low sulphur coal

Global coal use

 * Global use and production of coal
 * Australia and coal
 * China and coal
 * Colombia and coal
 * Germany and coal
 * Indonesia and coal
 * Japan and coal
 * New Zealand and coal
 * South Africa and coal
 * United States and coal